A 71-Year-Old Grandmother Charged Six Armed Robbers With Her Handbag

On February 7, 2011, six men on three motorbikes pulled up to Michael Jones Jeweller in Northampton, England. They were wearing helmets and carrying sledgehammers. They began smashing the display windows in broad daylight.

Dozens of people on the street froze. Some pulled out phones to film. Nobody moved to stop them.

Ann Timson

Ann Timson was 71 years old. She had rheumatoid arthritis so severe that she sometimes needed a wheelchair. That morning, she had carefully bandaged both legs just so she could attend her dance class later that day.

She was half a block away when she heard the commotion. From that distance, she thought someone was being attacked. She didn't call the police. She didn't wait for someone else to act. She started running.

The Charge

CCTV footage captured what happened next. A small woman in a red coat sprinted directly at six men with sledgehammers, swinging her handbag like a medieval flail. She hit one robber so hard he fell off his motorbike. The others panicked and tried to flee.

The footage went viral worldwide. Ann Timson became "Supergran."

The Aftermath

Five of the six robbers were caught and convicted. They received a combined 26 years in prison. The jewelry store later thanked Timson publicly.

When reporters asked if she considered herself a hero, she said: "I'm not a hero. But somebody had to do something."

She had bandaged her arthritic legs that morning for a dance class. She used them to chase down six armed men instead.